The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

5 Figures & <10 Hours a Month in 6 Months

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
Alright, so here goes.

I work in my own business that buys and sells used items. I've made the decision to outsource a majority of my work.

I've been working in this business for about a year. The process of doing things is pretty straight forward in my business. I spent the last year and few months figuring out what works and what doesn't.

If everything goes according to plan, here's what it should look like:

April: Finish the operations manuals for all parts of the business. Continue gaining capital. Research research research.

May: Test out the manuals myself. Keep working in the business. Receive feedback from current helpers and my soon to be employees. Continue gaining capital. Keep researching. Go from working 25 days to 12 days a month.

June: Same grind as 2nd month. Start the hiring process for employees. Keep refining the manuals. Keep researching.

July: Continue outsourcing work. Increase pool of employees. Keep refining the manuals. Keep researching.

August: Finalize the manuals. Finalize initial research.

September: First 100% hands-off day. Continue receiving feedback. Research more if need be. Tie up any loose ends.

Do I expect it to happen like this completely? No. But this is what I'm striving for. It might take me to December or beyond. My goal isn't to create a booming business here, but rather part of the equation that's takes very minimal to no time away from me. 10 hours a month making 5 figures as part of my income. Frosting on the cake if it makes 6 figures.

Without further ado, my progress thread!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
Beginning of April:

My business consists of 4 main activities.

I have a complete draft of activity 1. I need three more manuals for the three other activities to be fully complete.

I have one friend performing the 1st out of 4 activities. With a little bit more refinement, this first activity will be completely refined.

I am current training another friend who is doing the 2nd out of 4 activities. This one takes a good majority of time, but with enough training and time this will also be completely refined.

I will be training this same friend to do the 3rd out of 4 activities. This 3rd activity goes hand-in-hand with activity #2 and shouldn't take too much time to get cranked out. I need to create a manual for this. Currently I do this activity.

The 4th activity requires more employees. This takes up almost 12 days a month working 12 hours a day average for 6 days at a time. This is the dinosaur I'm going to take down this year.

As of current, I work an average of about 25 days a month. Once I outsource the 1st, 2nd and 3rd activity, I will be working only those 12 days in the 4th activity. This is my goal by the end of May.

Alright, stay tuned for the beginning of May!
 

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
Middle of April update:

Activity 1: I went over a second training session for activity #1 with my friend helping me part-time. I've also did a bit of brainstorming on this first activity and improved its efficiency by a little bit. This month will determine how effective my second training session went.

Activity #2 is still in the works. With more time and practice he should be able to do the work faster and more efficiently.

Activity #3: Currently working on the manual for activity #3. Should be done with a rough draft by 11:30 a.m.

Activity #4 is still being researched. Discovered some better techniques on how to outsource activity #4.

Overall, making progress. Personal goals have changed slightly.

September: Continue receiving feedback. Research more if need be. Tie up any loose ends.

End of September: Go a whole two weeks hands off.
 

JohnZ123

Bronze Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
169%
Jan 23, 2014
87
147
28
Thanks man. I'm definitely realizing that outsourcing can be done quickly, but isn't easy. Do you have a business you're working on?

Yes I run a few profitable e-commerce stores I started 3 years ago (won't disclose niches) when I was 19. All I can say is if you want a high value business community and information this is the best forum for it. MJ's book Millionaire Fastlane was a life changer for me. If it wasn't for his book, my family and I would still be poor today. I suggest looking at the Gold threads regarding business execution, it will help you a lot.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
April: Finish the operations manuals for all parts of the business. Continue gaining capital. Research research research.

Monthly update:

The manuals are done for activities 1 and 3. Activity 4 is still in the air due to still testing it out myself, but last week I got much closer to how I wanted it done. Capital is slowly growing.


May: Test out the manuals myself. Keep working in the business. Receive feedback from current helpers and my soon to be employees. Continue gaining capital. Keep researching. Go from working 25 days to 12 days a month.

This month I'm definitely buckling down and refining the manuals. I'm constantly working in my business this month as well. I've been receiving some valuable feedback from current helpers throughout April and things that should change and make things easier for all of us. In the meantime, I'm continuing the grind.

What I'm realizing is that the more experienced my helpers become, the less they need manuals because the tasks are so simple already. Since my helpers are in it for the long run, I'm focusing less on the manuals for activities 1, 2, and 3 and going to be putting more of my efforts into activity #4 this month.

Overall, I give my efforts a 7/10 in terms of value-adding activities. While the manuals are necessary for the business, I don't feel they made much of an impact. But I know I need them when I start to franchise out this business model to different places.

Ok, end of my monthly update. Time to go to the gym, come back and work until 8:00 p.m.
 

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
Late AF but I'm back.

Not much has happened in terms of meeting these goals. I've been struggling with too many damn excuses. Falling back on work and not gaining enough capital to outsource these activities has set me back a lot. But I'll give a brief update anyways. Staying accountable for my progress.

Since May I decided to condense activities 1 and 2 to just one activity. No need to separate them because it just adds more complications.

Activity 1# Grading and cleaning inventory
This activity has basically been outsourced to my current roommates. This activity was easy from the start. I now can outsource this to anyone, particularly college students starving for part-time work while being able to balance school.

Activity #2 Listing and pricing
This activity is still being refined by me doing it myself. I can outsource this activity with 70% confidence. The main thing that's stopping me here is the lack of monies needed to pay employees for this part. That's fallen on me for not stepping up bootstrapping more cash (Now taken care of recently with large shipment of inventory).

Activity #3 Outsourcing Sourcing
I've yet to execute this one. It's more of an internal trust struggle with me because I'm afraid of outsourcing this one to others. Plus, I haven't gotten around to refining this activity. For now, I'm bringing my friend with me to source inventory on the road to speed up this activity rather than outsourcing it completely and tracking down the results of this pivoted approach. I'm hoping that increasing my results in a shorter amount of time. The goal for this activity isn't to increase inventory found, but rather speed up the process at which it's found (I.e. Find 18 boxes of inventory in 3 days as opposed to 6 days).

All-in-all, my progress has stagnated because I made too many excuses. While progress has been made, it's been very little in comparison to my time chart. These past 21 days I pushed many of those excuses out the door. Deep down, I'm crossing my fingers I don't stagnate again. Sitting down tonight to chart another course in this business.

That's all I have for now. Time to hit the gym, bulk cook, set a new course, and make my mark on the world.
 

sparechange

Platinum Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
161%
Nov 11, 2016
2,804
4,502
Canada (Vancouver)
Clueless as to what you are even doing...... regardless, are you making sales?

It has been 4 months.

Dont get why you have no capital yet are hiring people. Do the work yourself and then hire others when you cant handle everything yourself.

A startup should be run 100% by the owner learning every aspect & then hiring others when the workload isn't possible to manage.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
Clueless as to what you are even doing...... regardless, are you making sales?

It has been 4 months.

Dont get why you have no capital yet are hiring people. Do the work yourself and then hire others when you cant handle everything yourself.

A startup should be run 100% by the owner learning every aspect & then hiring others when the workload isn't possible to manage.
So sales have been rolling in the past month. Just wasn't enough at the time because I've been procrastinating on sourcing. In this business no sourcing = no money, and that one fell on me. Recently however I'm managing to do enough to hire people for the very part-time work (15 hours every two weeks). Just not full time which is what I'm tackling.

This isn't necessarily a startup; it's an existing business I decided to ramp up so I already know the ins and outs. It's just a matter of building better habits at this point. But I know I'm confident my next update won't be as doom and gloom as this last one :shit:
 

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
August 2018 Monthly Update

Another month bites the dust. A little bit more progress has been made. Revenue has TRIPLED, and almost QUADRUPLED from last year after getting a July batch of inventory done.

Activity 1# Grading and cleaning inventory
I continue to improve this activity little by little, making this process easier and faster for current workers. This activity is still completely outsourced. I've barely touched this activity, and I only do it by choice.

Activity #2 Listing and pricing
Following through with this activity. Now I have enough money to hire my current friend to do this duty. With more training I'm confident I will be able to get him on full time and I will be running an experiment in September to see if I can complete a sourcing & listing cycle for my business with me still doing activity 3, then outsourcing activity 3.

Activity #3 Outsourcing Sourcing
Yesterday I took my roommate down to an area where I source my inventory. I've taught her how to do it. There were a lot of questions asked on both sides, and figuring out how to pay her whether commission or hourly is still in the air. I'm going to run one more extended routine with her and measure the results. I'm feeling MUCH better about outsourcing this activity. So much that I can already feel myself outsourcing it by the end of December. But still need to crunch numbers and figure it out.

Meanwhile, I'm still doing this myself for three days out of the 14 day cycle. I've discovered a great way to source inventory in my line of business really efficiently. Question is, is it worth outsourcing currently? I'll have my answer in October. Meanwhile I wouldn't mind working 3 days and letting my workers do the rest of the work for the remaining 11.

Looking back at my progress, I'm seeing the growth happening. As always, I'm really glad I found this forum. Just tracking my progress is enough to motivate me through the next month.

I'm looking forward to kicking some more a$$ in September and beyond.
 

amp0193

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
444%
May 27, 2013
3,639
16,159
United States
Really interesting seeing your progress in this. Operations manuals are something I need to work on myself.

When I start to think that what I'm doing can't be outsourced, I try to remember that there is nothing special about me. 5 years ago, my skills and experience were zero. If I can learn this, with no one showing me the way, how hard could it be to hire the right person for the job and train them how to do it?

For me, the biggest struggle is outsourcing sales. Operations? Done. Easy. But trusting someone to handle the interaction from beginning to end with MY customers... is so tough. But I know, as soon as I do... my time is freed up to do some really cool and important stuff, that I just never seem to have time to do otherwise.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
Really interesting seeing your progress in this. Operations manuals are something I need to work on myself.

When I start to think that what I'm doing can't be outsourced, I try to remember that there is nothing special about me. 5 years ago, my skills and experience were zero. If I can learn this, with no one showing me the way, how hard could it be to hire the right person for the job and train them how to do it?

For me, the biggest struggle is outsourcing sales. Operations? Done. Easy. But trusting someone to handle the interaction from beginning to end with MY customers... is so tough. But I know, as soon as I do... my time is freed up to do some really cool and important stuff, that I just never seem to have time to do otherwise.

I think it's the idea of giving away that process to somebody else that freaks many entrepreneurs in general. It's like letting your kid go to college: You want to protect them until the end, but you know they have to find their own way. Outsourcing has a similar feel, letting someone else do the work you're so good at doing. But it's one of the only ways to do it if time is a restraint. That taste of freedom is incentive enough to give the processes to others for sure.
 

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
Small update:

Two weeks ago I got sick for a week. Since I got sick, I couldn't list or source inventory. I had no motivation or energy to work. Business halted. Luckily the inventory at Amazon's warehouses was still selling, but having a halt on business activities because I was sick wasn't good. My inventory prep person couldn't work because she had no new inventory to work with. I also didn't want my inventory lister to list inventory at my place since I was sick and didn't want them around my apartment while sick.

Overall the business still halts when I don't work. I'm going to fix this in the future.

#3 Outsourcing Sourcing
I experimented sourcing inventory faraway with the roommate doing this task. The trip ended up not successful inventory-wise. The experience gained from it was recorded. Will need to put this into an employee training manual. Meanwhile I will still be doing this activity 6-8 days a month.
 

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
Reading my progress is making me proud but also cringe, just because it looks like I took three steps forward and a hundred steps back.

Son of a bitch, I didn't succeed in what I wanted to do. No excuses (And I hope I'm not saying that as an excuse). But I'm still going, and I'm still shooting to outsource my sourcing. I focused on the wrong parts of my business, and it made it suffer for a little bit.

I've been slacking on the progress thread, but still treading the forums weekly, so don't count me out yet.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Zcott

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
213%
Jul 24, 2018
303
645
Reading my progress is making me proud but also cringe, just because it looks like I took three steps forward and a hundred steps back.

Son of a bitch, I didn't succeed in what I wanted to do. No excuses (And I hope I'm not saying that as an excuse). But I'm still going, and I'm still shooting to outsource my sourcing. I focused on the wrong parts of my business, and it made it suffer for a little bit.

I've been slacking on the progress thread, but still treading the forums weekly, so don't count me out yet.

Kudos to you, you keep going!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, don't beat yourself up about it. Adjust and move forward.

How far away are you from your end goal?
 

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
Kudos to you, you keep going!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, don't beat yourself up about it. Adjust and move forward.

How far away are you from your end goal?
A while. This business is a stepping stone from where I want to be (6 figures per year passive income while solving millions of problems). But I know I can catapult myself forward even more this year than previous years.
 

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
Mini update:

I was able to give the pricing and grading tasks to my roommate and friend, whom I now pay every time I come in with new inventory. My roommate also checks in and packs the inventory without me having to supervise. Wow, just like that, I've made more strides in outsourcing than I ever did the past year, and I feel like I'm getting way more done!

Next is looking for others to look for inventory for me. Can't wait to see this happen!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
1 year progress. Haven't given up yet.

My life is divulging into two different roads: This resale business and the chance of taking over my uncle's accounting part of a family construction business. I'm currently doing bookkeeping and am learning different aspects of the job. This has much more potential, can easily be outsourced to put more focus into building the business itself, and is scalable. Barriers to entry are hard as construction is relatively hard to get into due to high cost of entry.

My biggest lesson I've learned in this entrepreneur journey is cash flow. I focused too much on low-end inventory and that tied up a lot of my money before I could flip it into more. More isn't better, less is. I took more steps backwards and am doing the work myself again due to not having the cash to outsource which was a stupid mistake in my obsession to be a bonafide entrepreneur.

I'll be honest, I'm uncertain of which way to go, but I'm gonna take my mistakes once more and build off them. #Canthurtme
 

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
Another yearly progress.

I've decided that reselling isn't going to be my road to wealth. I'm still going to be sourcing inventory online, but only on my own time. With all these rules Amazon is putting on resellers, I figured it's a matter of time before something happens to my account. I'm not going to risk that. I'm also putting down the opportunity to take over the accounting position as I don't feel like the work would be fulfilling for the amount I'd be getting paid vs. the little amount of work I'd have to do. That isn't how I roll.

I'm going into carpet cleaning. I've purchased the equipment with a small loan and am learning how to do a local service. I'm going to scale more locally with higher magnitude. This week, I've used the equipment after purchasing it second-hand from local vendors. I've talked to the people on top of the food chain and the middle and gained much-needed perspective.

For now, these are my goals for the rest of the year:

August: Learn the basics of carpet cleaning and stain removal. Continue to apply technical knowledge. Get many before-and-after pictures. Clean at least 3 more friend's and family's carpet. Purchase a 4k camera to get high-quality advertising. Get website up and running. Put together three packages.

September: Clean at least 2 more friend's and family's carpet. Learn how to clean tile and grout. Clean at least 3 tile floors. Start advertising on Google Ads, Craigslist, Facebook, and other websites. Clean a commercial area within my network for free and get some testimonial from them.

Get at least 3 customers.

October: Continue to advertise. Get at least 2 customers a week.

November: Continue to advertise. Get at least 3 customers a week.

December: Continue to advertise. Get at least 4 customers a week.

I'm gonna do my best to keep up with this monthly rather than coming back here yearly. There isn't enough accountability for myself by doing this yearly.

Looking back, I feel like a rock that hasn't gone anywhere. That's completely my fault for not keeping on track. I split myself too thin this last year. This year I'm dedicating myself to this service. No more going out of town for a few days looking for inventory when I need to focus strictly on scaling local with magnitude.
 

Andrewjgong

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 24, 2018
27
84
31
Fresno
2021 Update

I'm 5 months deep into carpet cleaning. I definitely entered in the slow part of the carpet cleaning season. Luckily, I'm still selling textbooks so that's covered me on the slow months.

Slowly, but surely, everything is falling into place. December's goal was definitely not met. However, I'm getting about 2-3 customers a week. Being defensive with the advertising costs until March/April comes around as I'm still refining cleaning techniques.

Looking back, I think the main reason why I choked on eBay and Amazon reselling was for two things:

1. The cash flow was slow for the categories I chose to resell.
2. In my attempt to grab every single dollar of profit, I choked out my cash flow.

The plan ahead is to create an income system that grows my money 200%:

1. Make carpet cleaning my primary source of income and cash flow. Live solely off that and put the rest away towards reselling.

2. Put sources from carpet cleaning into seasonal, high-profit inventory to resell Amazon and eBay. Flip twice a year at 100% profit per turnover.

Haven't given up yet!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top